


One Last Hurrah

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Goodbyes, Graduation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 19:46:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8222717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: Judai plans on slipping away into the night on graduation night; he doesn't want to disturb anyone with a long goodbye that he doesn't think he deserves.His friends have other ideas.[Late GX Month oneshot prompt: Graduation]





	

The ocean was black as ink tonight, the moon giving only a sliver of light overhead. Judai stood still for a few moments. His bag felt heavy on his back—it was probably the cat. He wasn't sure why he was letting Pharaoh and Daitokuji tag along, but maybe it was just because he was too tired to argue.

A cool ocean breeze brushed over his face, and he closed his eyes against it. From here, in the darkness behind his eyelids, he could only hear the ocean lapping at the dock below his feet and the trees rustling from the cliff behind him, could only smell the tang of the ocean in his nostrils. It was quiet...

It was lonely.

He blew out softly between his lips. Well, he wasn't going to be alone. The cat and Daitokuji were tagging along, and he could feel Yubel shifting at the back of his mind, like always. He couldn't likely get lonely with this crew.

Right?

He shook his head softly, opening his eyes. It was time to get going.

His feet clunked lightly on the wooden dock as he made his way down to the small boat that he'd be taking to the mainland. Samejima had already given him the okay, not that he would have listened if he hadn't. He didn't want to have to go back home on the big boat with everyone else, all the shouting and noise that was likely to come with all the students chattering as they went back home. It would be...suffocating.

He hoped his friends wouldn't be upset with him for leaving without a word.

Judai lowered his bag gently into the boat, careful not to hurt Pharaoh. He started to climb in after it, but something made him pause. Made his eyes lift up towards the island behind him,

The three domes of Duel Academy rose up into the sky, the blue, red, and yellow all illuminated by light from below. Even from this far away, he could hear faint sounds of music, wisps of laughter. People celebrating their graduation. Celebrating the end of one life, and the beginning of another.

For a moment, his fingers twitched. He felt his stomach turn over. He should be over there. He should...he should be over there. Spending one last night with everyone, with the friends that he loved and cared about. Should be saying his goodbyes and good lucks to them.

For a second, he almost stepped towards it—towards the light and the sound.

But his foot wouldn't take that step. God, what was he thinking? He didn't deserve to be over there. They'd probably be glad if he just fucked off into the night. He'd brought nothing but trouble for all of them....

He squeezed his eyes shut, grinding the heels of his hands into his head. No...no, he didn't want to think like that. They didn't hate him. They didn't—he was supposed to stop thinking like that.

Still...either way...he didn't need to be over there...they were having fun...no need to bring them down. He shook his head again, and turned back to the boat.

“Oy.”

The voice made him hesitate with one foot over the boat. His eyes flickered back over his shoulder, to the other side of the dock. Ed's big boat was docked there, but it had been dark and quiet, and Judai hadn't sensed anyone—not that he had been paying that much attention, though....

Ed leaned on the railing of the boat, his gray hair looking black in the darkness. His eyes glinted with faint starlight as he stared at Judai.

“So that's it?” he said. “You're just gonna...disappear?”

“Why aren't you at the party?” Judai said.

Ed shrugged.

“Technically, I'm not graduating,” he said. “Didn't attend enough classes to be considered enrolled anymore—and I wouldn't have graduated til next year anyway, remember?”

“Oh...right.” Sometimes Judai forgot that Ed was a year younger than him. “But still, you should be hanging out with everyone, right?”

“I could say the same thing about you,” Ed said, tilting his head and raising one eyebrow.

Judai dropped his gaze. For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Only the ocean whispered between the silence. Finally, Ed dropped his head and let out a huge, whistling sigh.

“Well, I'm not gonna tell you not to go,” he said. “But if you want a lift, I can tell you this is a lot more trustworthy than that flimsy thing.”

He nodded back at his boat.

Judai actually found himself smiling.

“Thanks, Ed,” he said. “You're not as bad as you look.”

“Oy, don't make me take my offer back,” Ed snorted, but Judai could see the flash of his teeth in the dark.

Judai actually laughed a little. This was...okay, he thought. Maybe it was okay to end the night like this. Saying at least one goodbye.

“Thanks,” he said again. “But it seems like a hassle to move that big thing for just two people. I won't bother you.”

Ed surprised him by snorting again.

“Just two people? If we're gonna be honest, Judai, I'd be squeezing you in.”

Judai blinked. His mouth opened to ask the question on his tongue, but then the door on the deck behind Ed opened, letting out a blinding streak of golden light.

“What, did he show up already? Ed-kun, why didn't you say anything?”

Johan's voice drifted out into the night, and then, there he was, silhouetted by the golden light behind him. For a second, Judai only stared—then Johan was laughing as Shou and Manjoume both shoved him forward.

“Oy, oy, you're blocking the way!” Manjoume said. “Judai! Is that you?? You little shit, if you thought you were gonna get away without saying goodbye to Manjoume Thunder, you have another thing coming!”

“Aniki, you didn't even show up for the fried shrimp! I saved you mine and it got _cold!_ ” Shou said.

There were other shapes pouring out of the door now—Fubuki tumbled out with his ukelele cradled in his arms, and Asuka appeared behind him with her hands on her hips.

“Judai, you missed Asuka in dress! A wasted opportunity!”

“Like hell was I going to wear that all night,” Asuka's voice drifted out. “You missed absolutely nothing in that respect, Judai. But you totally missed Fubuki trying to break dance on a table and embarrassing the hell out of me.”

“Oy, I'm here too!” Jim called out—Karen appeared first, though, crawling out and making a soft grunting sound as she pushed her nose to the railing, as though trying to look at Judai. “Karen was so upset, we came all the way out and she didn't get to see you!”

O'Brien didn't say anything when he slipped quietly out behind Jim, he just smiled softly in Judai's direction.

“Aniki, how could you leave without a goodbye?!” Kenzan shouted as he appeared, fat tears already rolling down his cheeks.

“Judai-senpai, I wanted to show you all of the pictures we took for the album!” Rei said as she pushed Kenzan out of the way so that she could exit.

Judai felt his head spinning for a moment as the silhouettes of all his friends crowded into his vision. For a moment, he felt—he felt like he was going to fall over. He wasn't sure if the tears that were springing to his eyes were tears of overwhelming surprise, or....happiness.

“You guys,” was all he could say for a moment.

Ed rolled his eyes as Manjoume seemed to be berating him for not saying that Judai had shown up.

“Like I said,” he said, “I'd be squeezing you in with the rest of this circus.”

Judai ducked his head away from the faces of his friends, afraid they would see the tears that were getting ready to roll down his cheeks.

“You guys should...you guys should be at the party with everyone else,” he said. “You shouldn't be...I'm...”

Asuka's voice floated to him first.

“I'm sorry if—we didn't want to overwhelm you,” she said. “And we don't want to make you stay....I...I understand that you don't want to stay.”

“But we didn't want you to go without getting a chance to say goodbye,” Shou said.

“We're not going to have a send off party or anything,” said Manjoume with a snort. “But at the very least, you can get up here and let us drop you off.”

Judai finally looked up again, at all the faces that were smiling at him. The faces of the people who had waited for him. Waited here, instead of enjoying themselves at the party—waited to see him off.

“So?” Johan said, smiling down at him. He stretched one hand over the railing. “Can we give you one last lift?”

The tears rolled freely down Judai's cheeks. He quickly put his arm over his eyes to hide them, staining his sleeve with them.

“You guys are too much,” he mumbled. “Too much.”

Yubel sighed at the back of his mind, and he could feel, for just a moment, a faint satisfaction coming from her. A feeling that was something like, _maybe these friends of yours aren't so bad after all._

 _They really aren't,_ Judai thought back. _They're...they're more than I deserve._

Judai let his arm fall from his face. He could not stop the smile that was growing over his face.

He leaned back down to grab his bag from the boat and sling it back over his arm.

Then, before he could stop himself, he ran. He ran the rest of the length of the dock towards Ed's boat. He ran, and he jumped, and not just Johan's hand met his—Manjoume's and Asuka's and Shou's and Jim's and O'Brien's and Ed's and Fubuki's and Kenzan's and Rei's all reached for his arm, all pulled together, and then he was tumbling forward onto the deck with all of them in a tangle of limbs and laughter and yelps.

Judai managed to sit himself up, and found everyone else sitting around him. Smiling faces—the people he loved. The people that loved him.

“Yeah,” he said breathlessly. “I could use the lift.”

 

 


End file.
